No. You're Wrong.

In which our hero avoids the Facebook comment bar like the plague....


If I am particularly possessed of one fault, aside from my vanity, pride, stubbornness etc. It is that I love to argue. By that I do not mean that I actively seek out arguments but if there is something to argue about, I'm there. I am overly argumentative and, often, overly loud. No doubt if you have met me in person you have recognized this. I also have the bad tendency to get frustrated while arguing and to consequently raise my voice to ungodly levels; mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

But, that said, I cannot stand getting in or reading arguments on Facebook/twitter/whatever-other-media-thing-you-use.

It is not that I think that the stuff that is often discussed should not be discussed. However I know that it is all too easy to demonize and dehumanize people on the internet. Even if something is meant to be a discussion between two friends about their personal views, it can quickly turn into two people bickering and writing walls of text at each other. Neither party thinks that they can persuade the other, they both just have to have the last word, and it has to sound cleverer than the other guy's last word.

Sometimes people will post things hoping for an argument. I really can't understand it. Perhaps they are annoyed at someone with whom they have had the same argument. Maybe they are just trying to start a comment war. Either way, someone takes a bite and the days of back and forth start.

Words are excellent things. I think that one of the most important gifts that God has given to man is the ability to read, write, and understand words. Conversation is important, there are times when it is appropriate to discuss ideas and try to reach an understanding or conclusion, or just to learn that you disagree.
One of the problems with the Facebook or blog comment wars is that both parties are set in their ideas, and they both know that the other person is not going to change their mind.

This is not true of normal face to face conversation. Even if neither side agrees on anything, they are less likely to walk away fuming at the other guy for being so obstinate and posting when the argument was 'obviously' over after a comment made at the very beginning. In person it is much easier to argue with a friend and then say to him, "I understand about the food baby Bubba but we're still friends."

When you write an argument down in, relatively, short bursts on the internet it leads to confusion and/or mockery. People willfully misinterpret what people write in order to gain 'points' for their argument. Explaining this misinterpretation takes time, and often while one person is clarifying the other will continue to post word walls. This isn't a one sided thing, most arguments on Facebook include both sides doing this back and forth.

When I watch arguments on Facebook it disturb me. I will watch kind, friendly people speak to each other in a manner which I know they would not use in person.
Once again I will admit that I am deeply guilty of this, a thousand times over. Mea culpa.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps the people I like so well, whom I trust to be so friendly to me, no matter what the context, are actually just waiting for me to say the wrong thing and then to spring on me with nasty commentary and sarcastic jabs.... I hope not, or I'm doomed.

Thank you for reading my excessively long monologue... or is it a soliloquy? Maybe it's just another in a never ending succession of internet arguments....